Leaving on a Jet Plane

Well, the Lundies have landed back in Akrotiri after our mammoth three-week tour of the UK.
Having negotiated the motorway networks of England, Scotland and Wales our final challenge was enduring the process of checking in and embarking the flight full of holidaymakers bound for our current homeland. Being a seasoned traveller, and also having worked at Heathrow for eight years, I have formed the opinion that there is some kind of force-field secreted within the body-scanner security arches which wipes from the average traveller the last remnants of common sense and empathy for their fellow human beings.
This is particularly compounded on the kind of flight that chooses not to allocate specific seats to its passengers (you know who I mean, no need to name and shame just yet!). It is with more than a degree of exasperation that I witness people who, I am sure, are compassionate, considerate individuals in their every-day lives, mutate into mercenary, twitching psychos at the merest hint that the airline ground-staff are due to announce that “the flight will be boarding shortly”. You can almost see the red mist descend as they survey their fellow passengers, determining which are the weak and defenceless who must be thrown aside like skittles and make the ultimate sacrifice in the quest for the window seat with the best leg room. It is in this air of paranoia that I find myself unable to resist messing with the heads of the susceptible few. A favourite game is to listen out for a barely audible airline announcement from another gate, and to get up and proceed to the doors of the boarding gate and stand there expectantly. Ten points is scored for every person who agitatedly jumps up to form a queue behind you before you subtly slip away making “baaa” noises under your breath....
Anyway, enough of my ranting, thankfully my entire family made it on to the plane and, having waved goodbye to the green fields of England for another year, we enjoyed a relatively incident-free flight.
On touching down in Cyprus, we were met with an entirely different scenario. As we disembarked on to the tarmac of Paphos airport we were greeted by a wall of heat. In Cyprus, it’s hot....no, really, very hot. It’s the kind of hot that invites the locals, even the leathery, weather-beaten men of the villages to regard you with a frustrated sigh, a melodramatic wipe of the brow and a slightly amused shrug. Having enjoyed the wettest spring in years, Cyprus is suffering the hottest and most humid summer on record.
Enter our home at the moment and you could easily be forgiven for thinking that you have stumbled upon the set of “Apocalypse Now”; the ‘whoop-whoop-whoop’ of the fans on full speed are reminiscent of the legions of helicopters, and sometimes I wonder if our roof needs to be cleared for take-off by the nearby air-traffic control tower. Only weeks ago, we delightedly watched the weather reports of the UK from this sun-soaked island and smirked at the tales of rain, cloud-cover and thunderstorms, now those very same forecasts are like the tantalising promises of a far-away land. We’re British, we’re never happy!!
August is typically a very quiet month, both here in Akrotiri and island-wide. Many of the Cypriots take long holidays and close their businesses and the schools enjoy an extended break. Meanwhile, a great deal of Akrotiri residents take the opportunity to visit families back home while the kids are off school. It is an unfortunate situation in some ways for August is also typically the time that we see the greatest number of new arrivals to Akrotiri, mainly families who hope to settle in before the children begin the new school year in a new school. At this time I tend to reflect on what a bewildering and disorientating time it must be for these new arrivals and trust that the systems that have been set-up to integrate the newcomers can rise to the challenge of providing the information and support that, naturally, these people crave and deserve. So far, I have been impressed, particularly with the work of the schools that aim to make the transition from one education establishment to another as stress-free an experience for the students who arrive here. Certainly at Akrotiri Primary, their efforts are commendable with a specifically allocated staff member who not only welcomes and personally introduces the new children to their classes, but also dedicates time to ensure that the children who are due to leave Akrotiri are informed and prepared for the changes they may expect on their departure. It is certainly a unique challenge faced and the constant turnover of pupils, together with the other expectations of any school working within the National Curriculum, provide a great deal of work for the staff there. And on top of this, the school manages to provide a warm and relaxed atmosphere (even when the air-con is on full-blast!) So top-marks to Service Childrens’ Education, and keep it up!